The last remaining officer of the famous Easy Company of World War II paratroopers died Friday at the age of 99.
Shames died ‘peacefully at home,’ according to an obituary posted by the Holloman-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory.
Shames, a Jewish child, was born to Jewish parents. At just 19 years of age, he signed his mother’s consent to join the Army.
Stephen Ambrose wrote Band of Brothers in 1992, chronicling the courage of Easy Company or the Screaming Eagles.
Bradford Freeman, 97 years old, is now the only surviving member in Easy Company after Shames’s passing. Freeman, who enlisted and was a mortarman, was a consultant for the Band of Brothers HBO miniseries created by Tom Hanks and Stephen Spielberg in 2001.
Edward Shames (pictured), who was just 19 when he signed his mother’s authorization to enlist with the Army in 1942, was one of the most prominent members of the 101st Airborne Division 506th Parachute Infantry Division and led to their chronicling in Band of Brothers 1992
Edward Shames (pictured in 2019) died ‘peacefully at home,’ according to an obituary posted by the Holloman-Brown Funeral Home & Crematory
Stephen Ambrose had written Band of Brothers in 1993. Nine years later, Stephen Ambrose made the miniseries into an HBO series. It was created by Tom Hanks & Stephen Spielberg. Joseph May, actor of Shames (pictured), played the role.
Shames, who was sent to combat in 2012 by Georgian authorities, described his grueling training.
He said, “A 25-mile march was for us just like a Sunday walk.”
“We had 10-12 miles of walking to get to Toccoa, then we would train for the day and return 10-12 miles each day to camp.
Shames was parachuting in Normandy during the D-Day invasion, his first day of active duty as an Easy Company member.
The Easy Company members, the inspiration for the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers”, are shown here.
Edward Shames is shown here with another Easy Company member
Paula Abdul and Ed Shames are pictured together in this photo taken on D-Day’s anniversary 2015.
Shames recalled that he could hear shrapnel hitting the sides of the aircraft and, when he jumped out, he could see the bullets entering the parachutes.
He went on fighting in Operation Pegasus, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge and became the first American soldier to liberate Dachau.
Shames raided Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in the aftermath of Germany’s surrender to 1945. This was used for entertaining visiting dignitaries and Easy Company. Shames snatched bottles of cognac, which were marked ‘for only the Fuhrer’, and used them to toast his oldest child’s bar mitzvah.
Shames, pictured, raided Hitler’s “Eagle’s Nest” which was used to entertain dignitaries visiting Germany after the surrender of Germany in 1945.
Shames, who worked for the National Security Agency for Middle East Affairs as well as the Army Reserve, retired in lieu of being a colonel.
Ida was his wife of 73 years. They traveled all over the world with him and their children before he died. Their sons, Steven and Douglas, as well as their four grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren, are survivors.
Service for Shames to be held at Forest Lawn Cemetery, Norfolk, Virginia on Sunday morning.
Edward Shames, centre, hugged Ed McClung, middle left. They were both World War II Army Companies E of 506th Regiment of 101st Airborne. Also present: veterans Jack Foley and Joe Lesniewski. Shifty Powers was far right. This photo was taken at Library of Congress in Washington on July 16, 2003